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Cathadh
Cathadh was a robot which represented the United States of America during Robot Wars: World Series, part of the tenth series of Robot Wars. It was entered by Team Toad, who were known for competing in BattleBots and the US live circuit. The robot was a loanerbot built by Robo Challenge, which had a previous identity as Arena Cleaner. The name "Cathadh" is Gaelic for "blizzard", continuing Team Toad's theme of naming their robots after cold weather conditions. Design Cathadh was an invertible robot armed with a horizontal spinning bar, weighing 20kg with one tipped blade on each end. A small rubber mount also holds the front end of the 103kg robot up. Cathadh used 3mm of HARDOX armour, and the weapon was particularly powerful, but its two-wheel drive system was completely exposed, including part of its NPC-T64 motors. The robot had previously competed as Arena Cleaner in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars, and thus reuses many of the stock components used by the other loanerbots built by Robo Challenge. It differs from Arena Cleaner in using new wheels, tyres and electronics - including a new transmitter - all supplied and installed by Michael Mauldin.https://www.facebook.com/fuzzymauldin/posts/10156065021246663 To accommodate the new additions, various weight savings were made to Arena Cleaner's chassis and armour, primarily through smoothing off the sides and cutting holes through the top and bottom of its weapon mount. Cathadh was also repainted into the signature orange-and-black colour scheme used by other robots built by Team Toad, an alteration requested by Mauldin and approved by Robo Challenge. Before filming of the World Series began, Mauldin built a scaled-down model of Cathadh, Cathadh Prime, which was used to test the robot's internals and tyres ahead of its appearance. Robot History Series 10 Cathadh represented the United States of America during the second episode of Robot Wars: World Series. As experienced competitors in North American robot combat events, Team Toad were selected as captains of the Rest of the World team for this episode. In the Tag Team round, Cathadh was paired with Canadian representative Terror Turtle; together, they faced seasoned UK Series competitors Thor and Concussion. Following an inter-team discussion, Terror Turtle fought first, with Cathadh staying out of the action until the former was flipped and immobilised by Concussion. Having spun its weapon up in the meantime, Cathadth slowly drove out of its corner and into an approaching Thor; the impact deflected it away from Thor, leaving Cathadh vulnerable to an axe blow from the Series 8 Grand Finalist. Cathadh’s spinner caught one of the steel cables attached to Thor’s front, ripping the cables and causing its weapon belt to slip. The robot sustained another side-on slam from Thor which stunned it – seconds later, Concussion left its corner to throw Cathadth over and into Shunt. By this point, Cathadh’s mobility was severely limited – Shunt pushed it into the centre of the arena, where it was left struggling to drive around upside-down. Cathadh was briefly pushed aside again by Thor and Shunt, and was left completely immobilised seconds before the klaxon sounded. Although both of the Rest of the World machines had been counted out, Michael Mauldin objected to the attack made by Concussion, which was considered to be illegal under the Tag Team rules. When Mauldin’s objection was upheld by Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon, Michael Oates of Team UK agreed to forfeit Thor and Concussion’s victory, with three points being awarded to the Rest of the World team as a result. Cathadh would not fight again until the last Head-to-Head of this episode, where it faced Eruption. By this stage, the Rest of the World team had incurred three consecutive losses, resulting in them losing the episode to Team UK before the battle had begun. Nevertheless, Michael Mauldin was adamant that he would try his best against the recently-crowned Series 10 champion. In an attempt to gain an advantage over Eruption, Cathadh was positioned sideways on its starting spot, with the intention of turning and hitting Eruption with the spinner as it came near. However, Team Toad’s plan unravelled in the opening seconds, as the spinner failed to start before Eruption drove towards it due to the damage caused by Concussion in the Tag Team StagePrivate correspondence between Sam Griffith and User:ThatRedOtter. Cathadh darted away over the spark jets, but was constantly bumped, pushed and chased around the arena by Eruption, eventually hitting the Arena Tyre. In doing so, it triggered ‘Rogue House Robot’ – Shunt momentarily drove after and into Cathadh, but Cathadh escaped by reversing and bumping into the Tyre. Despite sustaining another few bumps and shoves from Eruption and Shunt, it continued driving through an empty CPZ, even proceeding to drive into the side of Shunt as he chased after Eruption. With its bar spinner still not functioning, Cathadh bumped and lured Eruption across the arena, before pushing the latter back and forcing it to flip itself over. It retreated into the corner just as ‘Fog of War’ was enabled, before driving into Eruption just as the fog cleared. After some time trying to lure Eruption around again, Cathadh was flipped twice by Michael Oates’ machine; the second flip resulted in Cathadh landing upside-down after its rear clipped the wall. Spinning in circles, Cathadh was thrown into the wall twice more by Eruption, only for its bar spinner to suddenly start rotating. With this, it reversed, sparks flying as it hit Eruption’s flipper. Cathadh continued to damage Eruption while being simultaneously pushed into the corner – however, the sustained impacts caused the weapon belt to slip off. Weaponless once again, Cathadh was thrown violently against the wall by Eruption, reversing and spinning away to escape. However, its right tyre sheared off its axle as it was thrown upside-down again, leaving it immobile on one side as Eruption continued to flip it alongside the wall. As in its previous battle, Cathadh was counted out, before Matilda pushed and threw it in the pit. With this, the Rest of the World team finally lost the second World Series episode to Team UK; after the battle, Michael Mauldin apologised to Michael Oates for Cathadh’s performance, while later praising the efforts of his international teammates. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 2 NOTE: Although Cathadh initially lost its first battle by knockout, it was awarded the points of a victory due to a post-match forfeit Series Record NOTE: The previous identity of the loanerbot, Arena Cleaner, competed in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars. Outside Robot Wars Team Toad were frequent competitors in the original run of BattleBots. All of Michael "Fuzzy" Mauldin's robots from the lightweight division and up were named after cold factors, including Cathadh, and were generally painted orange. FrostBite 2.jpg|FrostBite in Season 2.0 of BattleBots FrostBite 3.jpg|FrostBite in Season 3.0 of BattleBots FrostBite 4.jpg|FrostBite in Season 4.0 of BattleBots FrostBite 5.jpg|FrostBite in Season 5.0 of BattleBots The team first competed with the heavyweight FrostBite, which competed in Seasons 2-5. It was originally a four-wheel driven invertible robot armed with a plough weapon, designed to push other robots around the BattleBox. It reached the fourth round in its debut season by defeating Punjar and OverKill before losing to Voltronic. It was also able to defeat Circuit Breaker in the third season, but lost to HexaDecimator. FrostBite returned to Seasons 4.0 and 5.0 armed with a threshing drum spinner, but lost its only battles in each of the seasons to Surgeon General and Omega-13 respectively. Team Toad entered the lightweight division of Seasons 3-5 with SnowFlake, a scaled-down version of FrostBite using a two-wheel drive, still with high pushing power. It was most successful in Season 3.0, collecting wins over Frozen Toast and Shockwave, also defeating Whirling Willy by default before losing to Gamma Raptor. In Season 4.0, it received two byes to reach the Round of 64, where it defeated Whirl Wep-EEL Brain, but lost to Ziggo in the Round of 32. In Season 5.0, it lost both of its battles to Sublime and Evil Cheese Wedge. IceCube 3.jpg|IceCube in Season 3.0 of BattleBots IceCube 4.jpg|IceCube in Season 4.0 of BattleBots IceCube 5.jpg|IceCube in Season 5.0 of BattleBots IceCube RG.jpg|IceCube at RoboGames, painted orange The team's first middleweight IceCube also competed in Seasons 3-5, and like FrostBite and SnowFlake, it was a robot armed with a snow plough, designed to push. Unlike most of Team Toad's robots, it was painted blue. The robot was driven by two pairs of wheels at either side, and also used a wheelie bar at the back for stability. It collected at least one victory in each season it competed in, defeating Pink Slip and Die Fledermaus in Season 3.0, Internal Audit in Season 4.0, and Trocar in Season 5.0. When BattleBots went off-air, IceCube continued to compete at RoboGames, becoming the 2006 Middleweight Champion. WindChill 3.jpg|WindChill in Season 3.0 of BattleBots WindChill 4.jpg|WindChill in Season 4.0 of BattleBots Team Toad also competed in Seasons 3.0 and 4.0 with a second middleweight, WindChill. It was box-shaped in design, and was an invertible robot driven by four wheels, armed with a lifting spike. In Season 3.0, it was able to defeat Phoenix, but lost to Traxx, and then lost to Armadillo in Season 4.0. Team Toad wished to enter Robotica with WindChill, but were not accepted to compete. IceBerg 3.jpg|IceBerg in Season 3.0 of BattleBots IceBerg 4.jpg|IceBerg in Season 4.0 of BattleBots IceBerg 5.png|IceBerg in Season 5.0 of BattleBots The team's superheavyweight, IceBerg, was their most successful in BattleBots. It was again an invertible pushing robot, but used a six-wheel drive, and its plough was now a lifter, powered by compressed air. Despite losing its only battle in Season 3.0 to The Judge, it reached the quarter-finals of Seasons 4.0 and 5.0. It did this in Season 4.0 by defeating Sharp Tooth, Half Gassed, Bucky the Beaverbot and No Apologies before finally losing to Little Blue Engine. It received a series of byes in Season 5.0, but still defeated Ronin and Phrizbee-Ultimate before being eliminated by Maximus. SnowCone.jpg|SnowCone prior to BattleBots SnowCone 5.jpg|SnowCone in Season 5.0 of BattleBots Team Toad also had an additional lightweight robot which competed in Season 5.0, SnowCone, built by Debbie Mauldin. It was armed with an angled spinning bar, but the robot could not live up to the team's reputation, and it was defeated by Bulldog in the first round of its only appearance. Outside of BattleBots, a 30lb version of SnowCone existed. TadPole.jpg|TadPole in Season 5.0 of BattleBots El Furro.jpg|El Furro in Season 5.0 of BattleBots Two antweight robots were entered into Season 5.0 by the team. The first was TadPole, an invertible robot armed with a lifting robot, painted to match the consistent theme of the team. It lost its only battle to Tsunami, but found more success on the live circuit. The team's less-serious entry was El Furro, a repurposed Furby toy armed with a swinging sword. It proved to be more successful, reaching the second round by defeating Cupcake. When BattleBots went off-air, the team built the heavyweight Avalanche, carrying on the legacy of FrostBite by using a similar design, another Team Toad robot to be an invertible pushing robot armed with a front plough. Its primary difference was its use of eight wheels across the robot. During the same period, Team Toad built Blizzard, an invertible robot armed with a thick spinning disc. Both were retired in 2011. IceChip.jpg|IceChip MiniMauler.jpg|MiniMauler Ice Maker.jpg|Ice Maker HalfPipe.jpg|HalfPipe LionHeart.jpg|LionHeart For uses outside of BattleBots, Team Toad also built other robots of lower weight classes: *'Ice Chip', an antweight heavily resembling IceCube. *'MiniMauler', a 12lb spinning robot based upon The Mauler. *'HalfPipe', a lightweight invertible pushing robot, armed with an angled plough. *'Ice Maker', a featherweight with an angled bar spinner much like SnowCone. *'LionHeart', a middleweight designed to push using a low-profile scoop. Polar Vortex.jpg|Polar Vortex with an electric lifter Polar Vortex 2017.jpg|Polar Vortex at RoboGames in 2017 The team's currently active heavyweight is Polar Vortex, which has regularly competed at RoboGames since 2014. Originally driven by two pairs of wheels at either side, Polar Vortex was armed with a broad electric lifter, designed to push robots. It was redesigned in 2017 to feature a spinning disc. At RoboGames in 2015, Polar Vortex defeated Pump, Whoops! and The Great Pumpkin before losing to Touro Maximus and Last Rites. In 2016, it defeated Vlad the Impaler II, but lost to fellow pushing robot Original Sin and Ragin Scotsman. The spinner version of Polar Vortex defeated Mega Melvin in 2017, but lost to Megabyte and Touro Maximus. Outside of robotics, Michael Mauldin is a farmer, owning the Lazy Toad Ranch. He had previously invented and served as a chief scientist for the Lycos internet search engine, which he initiated as a university project. As owner of the Lazy Toad Ranch, Mauldin also briefly operated the Robot Club & Grille, a restaurant which also included a Robot Fighting League-compliant arena for live events. The restaurant operated between December 2002 and the end of May 2003, after which it closed due to a lack of customers on non-event days.http://www.lazytoad.com/rc/index.html A segment on the Robot Club & Grille was featured as part of Episode 2 of the World Series. Trivia Apextoadsticker.png|A Team Toad sticker attached to Apex. Andronetoadsticker.png|A Team Toad sticker attached to Androne 4000. General Chompsalot Toad.jpg|A Team Toad sticker on General Chompsalot, during Robot Wars Extreme Warriors Season 1 Tut-Tut Team Toad.png|A Team Toad sticker on Tut Tut. Matilda toaded.jpg|A Team Toad sticker on John Findlay's Matilda. *Team Toad, much like Team MAD and Dorset Roboteering Team, made an effort to place stickers representing their team on as many competitors in the main series as possible. **There was a time when Team Toad stickers appeared on many miscellaneous places such as the Eiffel Tower, and a large number of robots in BattleBots. *Press releases regarding Cathadh's involvement in the World Series erroneously addressed Michael Mauldin as a 'Silicon Valley millionaire'http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m5yq0. Michael Mauldin is in fact a Texas resident, whose company Lycos was funded in Boston, Massachusetts. *Footage of Team Toad's featherweight Ice Maker was used in Episode 2 of the World Series, as part of a segment on Mauldin's former Robot Club & Grille (see Outside Robot Wars). *The pronunciation of Cathadh's name is a source of contention. Although Michael Mauldin originally had an understanding of how to pronounce his robot's name, he claimed to have been corrected by the producers into speaking its name as "Cath-Ard", which was used on television. Some Gaelic speakers still refute the way Cathadh was spoken on the show. External Links *The Lazy Toad Ranch website *[http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/Team_Toad Team Toad on BattleBots Wiki] *[http://battlebots.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_Mauldin Michael Mauldin on BattleBots Wiki] References Category:Invertible Robots Category:Loanerbots Category:Robots with Bar Spinners Category:Robots from Texas Category:Robots which debuted in Series 10 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 10 Category:US Representatives Category:Robots which only fought in International Events Category:International event only competitors in the UK Series Category:Robots from teams that entered BattleBots Category:Robots from teams that entered RoboGames Category:Tag Team Competitors Category:Side Competition Runners Up